[Intro: News Excerpts]The damage here along the gulf coast is catastrophic.There's a frantic effort under way tonight to findSurvivors. There are an uncounted number of the dead tonight...People are being forced to live like animals...We are desperate...No one says the federal government is doing a good job..And hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people...No water, I fought my country for years..We need help, we really need help..In Baghdad, they they drop, they air drop water, food to people.. Why can't they do that to their own people?The same idiots that can't get water into a major American city in less than three days are trying toWin a war...

[Verse 1 - Jay-Z]People was poor before the hurricane cameBut the down pour poured is like when Mary J. SangEvery day it rains, so every day the painBut ignored them, and showed em the risk was to blameFor life is a chain, cause and effectedNiggas off the chain because they affectedIt's a dirty game so whatever is effectiveFrom weed to selling kane, gotta put that in effectWouldn't you loot, if you didn't have the loot?Baby needed food and you stuck on the roofHelicopter swooped down just to get a scoopThrough his telescopic lens but he didn't scoop youThe next five days, no help ensuedThey called you a refugee because you seek refugeThe commander-in-chief just flew byDid he stop? No, he had a couple seatsJust proved jet blue he's notJet flew by the spotWhat if he ran out of jet fuel and just droppedHu, That woulda been something to watchHelicopters doing fly-bys to take a couple of shotsCouple of portraits then ignored 'emHe'd be just another bush surrounded by a couple orchidsPoor kids just 'cause they were poor kidsLeft 'em on they porches same old story in New OrleansSilly rappers, because we got a couple PorchesMtv stopped by to film our fortressesWe forget the unfortunateSure I ponied up a mill, but I didn't give my timeSo in reality I didn't give a dime, or a damnI just put my monies in the hands of the same people that left my people strandedNothin' but a banditLeft them folks abandonedDamn, that money that we gave was just a band-aidCan't say we better off than we was beforeIn synopsis this is my minority reportCan't say we better off than we was beforeIn synopsis this is my minority report

[Verse 2 - Ne-Yo]So many times I'm, covering my eyesPeeking through my fingersTryin' to hide my, frustration at the way that we treat(Seems like we don't even care)Turn on the tv, seein' the painSayin' such a shameThen tryin' to go on with my lifeOf that, I too, am guilty(Seems like we don't even care)So we send a lil' money, tell 'em it's alrightTo be able to sleep at nightYou will pay that priceWhile some of these folks' lost their whole life(Seems like we don't even care)Now it wasn't on the nightly news no moreSuddenly it didn't matter to you no moreIn the end almost nothing changedWhat the hell, what was that for?(Seems like we don't even care)

[Outro: News Excerpts]... Buses are on the way to take those people from New Orleans to Houston... They lyin'... People are dying at the convention center... Their government has failed them... George Bush doesn't care about black people